$1 billion ballroom?; poop-nami; A.I. planning massacres, eating itself; WKRP is on the air in Cincinnati.
It's National Crêpe Suzette Day!
Desi Lydic dives into the major cuts airlines are making to compensate for rising fuel prices, from beverage services on Delta Airlines to all services on the now-defunct Spirit Airlines. And while President Trump boasted his ability to tell the difference between an alligator and a squirrel on his cognitive test, his rant about rigged elections and nuclear war before an audience of children proves he can't tell the difference between minors and adults.
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The newsletter is published Monday through Thursday, holidays and medical procedures excepted.
—Kevin G. Barkes
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 239 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 989 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Republicans propose $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to secure Trump ballroom. The gleaming 90,000-square-foot space that he repeatedly said would cost the public nothing may ultimately leave taxpayers on the hook for $1 billion, due to new security enhancements that are tied to the project. (NBC News)
Trump just alarmed critics with an unsettling answer about leaving office. ″...And this way, when I get out of office, in, let’s say, eight or nine years from now, I’ll be able to use it myself,” Trump said about small business tax deductions. (BuzzFeed)
Trump pressures FDA commissioner to approve flavored vapes. In a series of weekend calls while in Florida and conversations at the White House on Monday, Trump sought advice from his advisers about the importance of flavored vaping to young MAGA voters, the people said. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Summer warning as ‘poop-nami’ sweeps toward some of America’s best beaches making water off-limits. (U.S. Sun)
FDA blocked studies finding Covid and shingles vaccines safe, HHS official says. (The Guardian)
A brutal first for the cruise industry. The world now appears to be experiencing its first documented cruise-ship hantavirus outbreak. (The Atlantic gift article)
Apple and Google are raking in money from social casinos that replace real winnings with virtual coins and dopamine hits. Some players have spent more than $1 million to keep playing. The $11 billion casino-style economy built on players who can never cash out. (Bloomberg gift article)
Even after two massacres, OpenAI still hasn’t stopped ChatGPT from helping plan school shootings. Even after the pair of horrible tragedies, a reporter easily got the free version of ChatGPT to give him “extensive advice on weapons and tactics as I simulated planning a mass shooting.” (Futurism)
Is A.I. eating itself? Sixteen percent. Thirty-three percent. Forty-eight percent. Those three numbers come from OpenAI's own internal benchmark for hallucinations — and they tell the story almost nobody in the AI press is telling. The newer the model, the more it makes things up. The company can measure exactly how much worse it's getting. They won't tell you why. (Video)
CINCINNATI (AP) — WKRP isn’t dead — as of Monday, it’s living on the air in Cincinnati.
Late Night:
Jimmy Kimmel Live! Trump now wants Americans to pay for his ballroom and says crazy stuff to kids in the Oval Office. (Video)
Late Show with Stephen Colbert: President Trump hosted children at the White House to mark the return of the Presidential Fitness Test, Pete Hegseth explained the military's plan to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the war against Iran is hurting American businesses of all sizes, and Stephen reacts to the red carpet looks at this year's Met Gala. (Video)
Cold open: Stephen Colbert addresses the nation from President Obama’s Oval Office. (Video)
Late Night with Seth Meyers: Trump talks Iran and nuclear war at White House event for kids. (Video)
Keep scrolling… lots of interesting stuff in Quote of the Day, Holidays, On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll learn something new.
History highlight:
1937 – Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people were killed. (Video)
Quote of the Day:
Living in the lap of luxury isn’t bad, except that you never know when luxury is going to stand up.
--Orson Welles (Wikipedia link)
(More Orson Welles quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Bike To School Day, Great American Grump Out, International No Diet Day, Joseph Brackett Day, National Anxiety Disorders Screening Day, National Beverage Day, National Crêpe Suzette Day, National Nurses Day, National School Nurse Day, National Tourist Appreciation Day, No Homework Day, Occupational Safety and Health Professional Day, Wishbone Day, World Carnivorous Plant Day, and World Moyamoya Day.
On This Day:
2023 – The coronation of Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms was held in Westminster Abbey, London.
2013 – Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, were found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.
2010 – In just 36 minutes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 1,000 points in what was known as the 2010 Flash Crash.
2004 – The final episode of the television sitcom Friends was aired.
1998 – Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. unveiled the first iMac.
1996 – The body of former CIA director William Colby was found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
1994 – The Channel Tunnel was officially opened.
1994 – Paula Jones accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
1983 – The Hitler Diaries were revealed as a hoax after being examined by new experts.
1968 – Columbia Records released "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison", his first live album. (Video)
1957 – The final episode of “I Love Lucy” aired on CBS.
1955 – West Germany joined NATO.
1954 – Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
1949 – EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, ran its first operation.
1945 – World War II: Axis Sally delivered her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1942 – World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese.
1941 – At California‘s March Field, Bob Hope performed his first USO show.
1940 – John Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
1937 – Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people were killed. (Video)
1935 – New Deal: Under the authority of the newly-enacted Federal Emergency Relief Administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7034 to create the Works Progress Administration.
1915 – Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hit his first major league home run.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower was officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
1882 – The United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1840 – The Penny Black postage stamp became valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1835 – James Gordon Bennett, Sr. published the first issue of the New York Herald.
1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
2019 – Prince Archie of Sussex
1998 – Luigi Mangione, suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
1993 – Naomi Scott, English actress and singer
1987 – Adrienne Warren, American actress
1983 – Gabourey Sidibe, American actress
1961 – George Clooney, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (Video)
1960 – Anne Parillaud, French actress (Video)
1960 – Roma Downey, Irish-American actress and producer
1955 – Tom Bergeron, American television host
1953 – Tony Blair, British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1945 – Bob Seger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Video)
1937 – Rubin Carter, American-Canadian boxer (died 2014)
1931 – Willie Mays, American baseball player and coach (died 2024)
1915 – Orson Welles, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1985) (Video)
1913 – Stewart Granger, English-American actor (died 1993)
1903 – Toots Shor, American businessman, founded Toots Shor’s Restaurant (died 1977)
1895 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (died 1926)
1868 – Gaston Leroux, French journalist and author (died 1927)
1856 – Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst (died 1939)
1856 – Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (died 1920)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2004 – Barney Kessel, American guitarist and composer (born 1923)
2004 – Virginia Capers, American actress and singer (born 1925)
2002 – Otis Blackwell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1932)
1992 – Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress and singer (born 1901) (Video)
1991 – Wilfrid Hyde-White, English actor (born 1903)
1987 – William J. Casey, American politician, 13th Director of Central Intelligence (born 1913)
1952 – Maria Montessori, Italian-Dutch physician and educator (born 1870)
1919 – L. Frank Baum, American novelist (born 1856)
1862 – Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher (born 1817)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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